update
Well I've now been here for basically a week.
I've seen a few family members, a couple of friends - although not nearly enough on either count.
I've done nada on the scholastic front. Of course. Sigh.
I've been a bit overwrought on the emotions side - I'm in the middle of doing something for my parents, or am on the way to some family shindig (we've had a couple so far, and more on the way), and I get hit with this immense wave of homesickness - for England. I miss my friends there, my kids, my routines. Yes, I was stressed, but ... it was familiar.
I'm still on a whacked out sleeping pattern to boot ... now I'm between the two time zones, so still not overly helpful!
In slightly less whingy news: my parents' cats, Ty and Sephy, have adopted me. Every time I leave the apt, they both rush the door to make sure I've come back. Every time I try to sit down, I've got one if not both vying for my lap. I learned quickly how to balance my laptop on my knees so as to make room for Ty (he's the size of a small dog, and doesn't like sharing my lap) :P
We've discovered that my accent fluctuates. If I don't think about it, it comes out English - except when I'm annoyed. Then it flares into Cdn! We had a good bout of "poke fun of the accent" yesterday at Grandma Bea's bday party. Cheryl has decided that I sound like Emma Thompson. *shrug* I can't hear it, but sure, we'll go with that. And everyone agrees that when I get annoyed/frustrated/am 'demonstrating an escalation of emotion' (long story), I definitely sound Canadian again. Go figure!
I've been dreaming like crazy again. Last night I couldn't sleep for dreaming. I finally moved in my parents' bed while they were getting ready for work, hoping that would help - all I did was dream more. Sigh. All about school too - sometimes I'm the student, terribly late and unprepared for class. Sometimes I'm the teacher, trying to reason with unreasonable students - sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. It felt like dealing with my year 8s, only they had the faces of my old friends from when I was in school. I think I'm actually sleeping better while the tv is on in the background - at least then I'm not tending to dream about school :s
Let's see ... I've not tried driving since coming back. It feels really wrong to sit on the right side of the front and not to have a steering wheel in front of me *shakes head* I'm not overly worried about driving on the other side of the road - but I AM very worried about driving in this weather. Dad was fishtailing last night on the way to the bday party, and I almost started to hyper-ventilate. Not a good sign when I'm in the backseat. Gah. Dad wants me to start driving again though, so they don't have to chauffeur me to places outside of walking distance, and so I can run errands outside of walking distance during the daytime. I don't know though - I haven't driven in snow in a looooooooong time. And we have a heck of a lot of it. The last snowstorm (as in Fri afternoon - late Sat night) dropped over 30 cm on my hometown (that's a foot, for those more Imperially-inclined). That was the second snowstorm in the current series of three - the first bad one hit on Tues, the day after I landed. This was the second, and the third is due in a couple of days. You know it's bad when there's a province-wide shortage on salt. Eeeep! So yeah, don't really want to try driving in this anytime soon. It sure is pretty though - and yes, I've been taking pictures!
So I got to see John and the very pregnant Shelley yesterday at the bday party. John and I have been really close literally since I was born. Which has caused a tense relationshiop between Shelley and I - she seemed to think I was a huge threat to the love of her life. My response: honey, if I had wanted him, I would've had him long before you were in the picture. Geesh. But I digress. I ended up missing their wedding b/c of school politics back up in Wolsie (as in I agreed to take the job if they would give me the time off to go to the wedding. They agreed and then made it so difficult for me to take the damn time off that I finally threw my hands in the air and gave up). So I really wanted to be here to meet my first neice/nephew. (Yeah, okay, so we're not technically related, but we're as close as, so I plan on being known as his/her aunt. I refer to John and his sis Kate as my cousins anyway, so why the heck not?) :P Apparently if he's a boy, he'll be John James (JJ, acc to all the women, although John wants to call him James - this is where my demonstration of escalations of annoyance came in, as I explained 'JJ' is irked, 'James' is bad, 'Jonathon James' is very bad, and throwing in the last name means the kid is toast), and if she's a girl, she'll be Laura Catherine. They didn't remember that my middle name is Catherine, but if she's a she, I'm going to tell her we share a middle name anyway :P
So yeah - I'll be here for the birth anyway (she's being induced on Mar 26th), although I'll miss the shower (sched for April 19th) and the christening, unfortunately. Well, helpful on the (practically non-existant) pocketbook, but still a bit sad. But at least I'll get to be there for the birth!!!
Okay, so my quickie update, as per usual, has gone on way longer than planned. I must get dressed, go battle the ladies of the building for washer and dryer space in the laundry downstairs, do the dishes, and pickup both food for dinner and drugs for my head downtown. And play with the kitty currently staring me down. Yup, just a nice, relaxing holiday..... *rolls eyes* Did I mention that I missed my English home yet? *grin*
HUGS to everyone - esp Tracy. I miss you!!!!!!
~ames
I've seen a few family members, a couple of friends - although not nearly enough on either count.
I've done nada on the scholastic front. Of course. Sigh.
I've been a bit overwrought on the emotions side - I'm in the middle of doing something for my parents, or am on the way to some family shindig (we've had a couple so far, and more on the way), and I get hit with this immense wave of homesickness - for England. I miss my friends there, my kids, my routines. Yes, I was stressed, but ... it was familiar.
I'm still on a whacked out sleeping pattern to boot ... now I'm between the two time zones, so still not overly helpful!
In slightly less whingy news: my parents' cats, Ty and Sephy, have adopted me. Every time I leave the apt, they both rush the door to make sure I've come back. Every time I try to sit down, I've got one if not both vying for my lap. I learned quickly how to balance my laptop on my knees so as to make room for Ty (he's the size of a small dog, and doesn't like sharing my lap) :P
We've discovered that my accent fluctuates. If I don't think about it, it comes out English - except when I'm annoyed. Then it flares into Cdn! We had a good bout of "poke fun of the accent" yesterday at Grandma Bea's bday party. Cheryl has decided that I sound like Emma Thompson. *shrug* I can't hear it, but sure, we'll go with that. And everyone agrees that when I get annoyed/frustrated/am 'demonstrating an escalation of emotion' (long story), I definitely sound Canadian again. Go figure!
I've been dreaming like crazy again. Last night I couldn't sleep for dreaming. I finally moved in my parents' bed while they were getting ready for work, hoping that would help - all I did was dream more. Sigh. All about school too - sometimes I'm the student, terribly late and unprepared for class. Sometimes I'm the teacher, trying to reason with unreasonable students - sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. It felt like dealing with my year 8s, only they had the faces of my old friends from when I was in school. I think I'm actually sleeping better while the tv is on in the background - at least then I'm not tending to dream about school :s
Let's see ... I've not tried driving since coming back. It feels really wrong to sit on the right side of the front and not to have a steering wheel in front of me *shakes head* I'm not overly worried about driving on the other side of the road - but I AM very worried about driving in this weather. Dad was fishtailing last night on the way to the bday party, and I almost started to hyper-ventilate. Not a good sign when I'm in the backseat. Gah. Dad wants me to start driving again though, so they don't have to chauffeur me to places outside of walking distance, and so I can run errands outside of walking distance during the daytime. I don't know though - I haven't driven in snow in a looooooooong time. And we have a heck of a lot of it. The last snowstorm (as in Fri afternoon - late Sat night) dropped over 30 cm on my hometown (that's a foot, for those more Imperially-inclined). That was the second snowstorm in the current series of three - the first bad one hit on Tues, the day after I landed. This was the second, and the third is due in a couple of days. You know it's bad when there's a province-wide shortage on salt. Eeeep! So yeah, don't really want to try driving in this anytime soon. It sure is pretty though - and yes, I've been taking pictures!
So I got to see John and the very pregnant Shelley yesterday at the bday party. John and I have been really close literally since I was born. Which has caused a tense relationshiop between Shelley and I - she seemed to think I was a huge threat to the love of her life. My response: honey, if I had wanted him, I would've had him long before you were in the picture. Geesh. But I digress. I ended up missing their wedding b/c of school politics back up in Wolsie (as in I agreed to take the job if they would give me the time off to go to the wedding. They agreed and then made it so difficult for me to take the damn time off that I finally threw my hands in the air and gave up). So I really wanted to be here to meet my first neice/nephew. (Yeah, okay, so we're not technically related, but we're as close as, so I plan on being known as his/her aunt. I refer to John and his sis Kate as my cousins anyway, so why the heck not?) :P Apparently if he's a boy, he'll be John James (JJ, acc to all the women, although John wants to call him James - this is where my demonstration of escalations of annoyance came in, as I explained 'JJ' is irked, 'James' is bad, 'Jonathon James' is very bad, and throwing in the last name means the kid is toast), and if she's a girl, she'll be Laura Catherine. They didn't remember that my middle name is Catherine, but if she's a she, I'm going to tell her we share a middle name anyway :P
So yeah - I'll be here for the birth anyway (she's being induced on Mar 26th), although I'll miss the shower (sched for April 19th) and the christening, unfortunately. Well, helpful on the (practically non-existant) pocketbook, but still a bit sad. But at least I'll get to be there for the birth!!!
Okay, so my quickie update, as per usual, has gone on way longer than planned. I must get dressed, go battle the ladies of the building for washer and dryer space in the laundry downstairs, do the dishes, and pickup both food for dinner and drugs for my head downtown. And play with the kitty currently staring me down. Yup, just a nice, relaxing holiday..... *rolls eyes* Did I mention that I missed my English home yet? *grin*
HUGS to everyone - esp Tracy. I miss you!!!!!!
~ames